MONTREAL — The largest school board in Montreal is running elementary students through school-shooting drills in which the children hide in classrooms and display distress signs in windows.

Several parents told QMI Agency the intense exercises, which simulate an attack by a gunman, are traumatizing their kids.

Guillaume Levesque, a father of two children, said primary school students are too young for such drills.

"We weren't even told the school was doing containment exercises," Levesque told QMI Agency. "One student was responsible in his class for putting black cardboard in the window to call for help. They're much too young."

Celine Bianchi, mother of two, agrees.

"My six-year-old son told me that his teacher wants the class to be ready if ever there was 'a man who comes to school and wants to kill us.'" she said. "He told me he didn't want to go through what they went through in the United States."

The shooting deaths of 20 students at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 prompted some Canadian schools to tighten security measures.

Simulations had already been common in Quebec following the 2006 Dawson College shooting rampage.

The Commission scolaire de Montreal said contingency plans are mandatory for fires, but schools can stage containment drills at their discretion.

"It depends on each school, but administration has to consult with parents," said board spokesman Alain Perron. "It's been proven that this is the way to go, should an unfortunate event arise."